In the nursery, where the sun drew golden stripes on the colorful carpet, lived a little detective. He wasn't just any detective. His name was Leo and he was a chameleon. His greatest passion wasn't just changing colors, but mainly searching for patterns and solving mysteries. For him, every day was a new case.
One morning Leo woke up and as always, took a walk along his favorite route – on the toy train tracks. But today something was different. The locomotive stood abandoned at the beginning of the track. There wasn't a single car behind it!
"Great railway disaster!" Leo whispered to himself and put on his detective hat, which was actually just a marker cap. "The case of the missing train cars has just begun!"
He approached the locomotive and pulled out his magnifying glass, a tiny piece of glass from a doll's broken spectacles. He carefully examined the side of the locomotive. And there it was! A clue! On the locomotive was painted a colorful pattern: red stripe, blue stripe, then red again and blue again.
"Aha!" Leo exclaimed. "This isn't just decoration. This is a code! The train cars must follow exactly this pattern. The first must be red, the second blue, the third red again and the fourth blue. I must find them!"
Leo looked around the room. It looked like a toy explosion. There was mess everywhere. But for detective Leo, this was just a bigger challenge.
He jumped down from the tracks and headed toward a large pile of building blocks. It looked like a colorful mountain range there. He carefully climbed among the blocks and his sharp eyes searched. Suddenly he spotted it! Between two yellow blocks, a red train car was hiding.
"The first evidence is found!" he rejoiced. He carefully pulled out the car and pushed it to the tracks. He connected it to the locomotive. "So, red is here. Now I need blue."
His investigation continued. He walked around a large rubber ball. It had blue and white stripes. Leo stopped. "It is blue, that's true," he thought aloud, "but it also has white. And it's a ball, not a train car. This isn't the right clue."
He understood that he had to look not only for the right color, but also the right object. His gaze fell on a large stuffed bear sitting in the corner. And under its paw, something blue was showing. Leo quietly crept closer. Yes! It was the second car, exactly the blue one he was looking for.
"Excellent, Leo!" he praised himself and dragged the car to the train. "I already have two. Red, blue... now red follows again."
The third car, however, seemed to be the best hidden. Leo searched the shelf with toy cars, but there he only found a red fire truck. He looked in the box with crayons, but there were only red crayons. He was starting to get a bit desperate. He sat on the edge of a book to rest. And then he noticed it. From a colorful paper kite hanging on the wall, a string was dangling. And on that string, tangled like a little nut, hung the third, red train car.
"What a hiding place!" Leo laughed. Using his long tongue, he skillfully freed the car and brought it down to the ground.
Only the last, fourth car was missing. The blue one. Leo walked through the entire room, but couldn't see it anywhere. Only one place remained. The mysterious and dark cave under the bed. Leo gathered courage and slipped under the blanket that hung down to the floor.
Inside it was dark. "A little light would be useful here," he said to himself and concentrated. His green skin slowly began to change and in a moment he glowed like a small yellow lamp. In his light he spotted a small tin soldier. And the soldier was sleeping. And what was he sleeping on? On the last, blue train car, which he had made into a comfortable bed!
Leo carefully approached him. "Excuse me, Mr. Soldier," he whispered, "but I need this car. It belongs to my train."
The soldier woke up, rubbed his eyes and looked at the car. "Oh, sorry! I didn't know it was part of the train. I thought it was just a nice blue little bed." He handed him the car without a problem.
Leo thanked him and with the last catch ran out from under the bed. He quickly connected it to the others. The train was finally complete! The locomotive and behind it four cars in the exact order: red, blue, red, blue.
Detective Leo smiled contentedly. He pushed the train and it cheerfully started running along the tracks. He watched as the beautiful colorful pattern moved around the room and felt very proud. "You see?" he said to the toys around. "Even in the biggest mess, you can find the right way. You just need to look carefully for patterns!"
And who knows, maybe in your room, too, there's some mystery waiting that you can solve. Will you try to find some patterns around you?